Mission Journal: Who is a journalist in Egypt?

Egyptian journalists, besieged by punitive lawsuits and
under threat, agree that under President Mohamed Morsi "there is no press freedom,
only the courage of journalists," as editor Ibrahim Eissa put it. What they
can't agree on is--in a climate of freewheeling, mutable media--who exactly is a
journalist?

During a CPJ mission to Cairo last week to assess conditions
and plan our advocacy, we met with over a dozen journalists. I asked all of
them to define the difference between journalism and activism in a climate in
which objectivity is impossible. Most said it was a useless exercise. Eissa,
who co-founded the first post-revolution TV station, appropriately named Tahrir
TV, first sold his stake, then quit when the station changed its editorial
line. He edits a daily newspaper, also called Tahrir, and is a regular commentator
on TV. He is facing
various charges including "insulting religion."

"As a journalist, your job is to seek the truth and defend
your freedom and that makes you an activist in this environment," Eissa said. "You
will confront the government simply trying to defend your rights as a
journalist. So you are not changing your description--you are just operating in
a different state."

Political talk-show host Dina Abdel Fattah agrees. She is facing
nearly 300 lawsuits and was forced to quit her job, also at Tahrir TV, after interviewing
members of a violent youth group called the Black Bloc. "Maybe there are no
borders between journalism and activism," she said. "We are all Egyptians and
this is our country."

Her fellow talk-show host, Reem
Maged, gained acclaim for standing with the protesters in Tahrir Square. Today,
she faces charges of "disseminating false information about judges through the
media." She tries her best to draw a
distinction between her on-air journalistic persona and her participation in
political protests. "I consider myself a journalist, but in the street I'm an
activist and I have positions," she said. "It's really difficult to separate
the two."

Meanwhile, the most popular journalist in Egypt is not
really a journalist at all. Bassem Youssef is a satirist and talk-show host in
the style of Jon Stewart. He mocks President Morsi mercilessly, and through his
racy and scathing commentary and skits, pushes the bounds of freedom of
expression. The irony of a political satirist facing
charges of "insulting the president" and "reporting false news" cannot be
overstated.

The inability to draw a line between journalism and activism
has significant implications, not only in Egypt but throughout the Middle East.
After Cairo, we flew to Doha to attend a workshop hosted by the Doha Centre for
Media Freedom. The three-day event brought
together press freedom groups from throughout the Middle East. One of our biggest
challenges was agreeing on who we should help and defend--particularly in Syria,
where local human rights groups include "media activists" in their tallies of
journalists killed.

CPJ does not have a rigid definition of what constitutes
journalism. We look at each case in context, examine the person's work, and
make an informed judgment. It's a process that has worked well until now. If it's
gotten to the point where mainstream journalists in Egypt no longer make a
distinction between journalism and activism, then the boundaries are blurring
so quickly they may soon become impossible to discern.

Joel Simon is the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He has written widely on media issues, contributing to Slate, Columbia Journalism Review, The New York Review of Books, World Policy Journal, Asahi Shimbun, and The Times of India. He has led numerous international missions to advance press freedom. His book, The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Media Freedom, will be released November 11, 2014. Follow him on Twitter @Joelcpj. His public GPG encryption key can be found here.